I also fail to see how this deal benefits either company itsself. But the Voodoo brass gets their checks and the HP board can say they successfully copied Dell, so they're happy. The only way these gaming PC acquisition deals can make $$$ is if the large PC company offer the name of the gaming marque in retail stores, like how Alienware was sold in BestBuy. That way you get to charge a few hundred extra for a name.

Anyways, at least Falcon is still independent, so once I hit it rich I still have a vendor to use. Reply

Obviously this will put a few million in the pockets of Mr Sood and company but I'm not sure the value to HP. No matter how cutting edge Voodoo remains or retian thier famous attention to details within thier boxes and personel tech support the people dropping paper for these boxes don't cater to the huge megaconglomerates like HP Dell and IBM for thier boutique purchases. They buy because its cool, hip, it's uncoventional, no one else on thier block has one and its not from ACME computer corp. It's psychological mostly wating to feel special elite and taken care of, HP will never be able to do that. I like to see the sales fiqures drop with Aleinware after Dell took over. You can bet its a drop even though it's a secret. Meh for these companies tosing away 50-100million on a chance is nothing though, it's not thier money. Reply

wrong, they might be overpriced, but Voodoo PC and Alienware makes great boxes. The myth that just because you build it yourself it's better is so far off. Sure people who understand what they're doing make great custom pc's. But, I wouldn't suggest a newbie who ain't willing to really learn try to build a top of the line SLI box.

I have often used Falcon and Alienware sites to see which component combinations they use. Fastest MB + Fastest RAM + Fastest Video Card does not always = Best PC. Companies like Voodoo and Alienware add the value of testing various configurations before marketing them without making the same performance sacrifices the big OENs often make.

I only hope we don't see watering down of their respective systems. Reply

Mext? I like that idea....Ok I jusr checked thier site , wow!... time to start our own. They charge $14433.18 for a water cooled 1900xt xfire box we could build for $2000-$3000 = profit!! and even more profit going to sell the company to the stiff suits on wallstreet. Damn thier is some dump people with a lot of money in this world. Reply

not sure who "we" is, but tell "we" if they can build a a system like that for 3,000 - hell for 6,000 I will buy 10 of them at once! 14.5k is inflated yet, but you need to shop around, Falcon's paint job's alone are hella expensive. I was quoted one place for wanting a custom air brushed case (I already had the case...) $750 bucks. All these specality vendors like Falcon and Voodoo put anything they sell threw hella testing, which is good for the consumer. As a consumer you can't possibly test all the configurations they do to know what works best together. Typically I read 2 reviews of a MB, buy it, and end up having issues :)

Bottom line: $6000 minimum to use off-the-shelf equivalents, without any paint job.
$7875 for maxed out version with paint (estimated at $1100 for painting all components)

What about some digital 5.1 speakers? There's another $300 if they use the Logitech Z-5500. Let's give them 15% profit, just because we are talking a high-end configuration. That puts the total of the maxed version at $9400 at least. Hopefully there's a full onsite 3-year warranty (or next-day shipping to and from the manufacturer), which could be $500 or so. Assuming top quality support, you might also get another $500 added on to pay those people, and I forgot the $130 for the OS.

Yes, I'm being a bit generous on some prices, and it is quite possible to get over $10000 in "costs" for the system builder. That's still $4500 in profit, but there is no way on earth you can match a full FNW $14500 system with any box costing under $4000 (not including LCD). Then you just need to get people to buy it, which is the really tough part. Heh. Reply